IDRC - Celebrating 25 Years

1993 - 2018

Supports for complying with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)

How do I make my web site accessible? How do I make my office documents accessible? How do I make information available in alternative formats? Businesses and organizations read our AODA Help.

RT @jesshmitchell: What?! @idrc_ocadu is hosting a *free* conference on October 18 https://t.co/Y3WOUqiJ9H. The popular wisdom is that what…
reply • retweet • favorite
FluidProject The @idrc_ocadu's @colinbdclark talking inclusive environments and co-design earlier this year at the Coleman Insti… https://t.co/hXo23gJ8wg
reply • retweet • favorite
RT @The8Techdudes: Working memory issues?!We crushed those this week. Check it out! https://t.co/aa4tsEkUW8
reply • retweet • favorite

Latest News

Employment opportunity: Inclusive Developer (AI and Machine Learning)

Data and algorithms aren't neutral - they reflect our biases, hidden assumptions, and systemic exclusions. Want to use your development skills to address these issues of equity and inclusion? Project We Count will examine discrimination and exclusion of persons with disabilities in the field of AI and machine learning, in collaboration with the people who have direct experience of this.

As an Inclusive Developer at the IDRC, you will help to build new systems that show how we can creatively address inequities in this rapidly growing field. Your job will include collaborating with other developers and designers to build web-based user interfaces for inclusive AI, participating in and supporting co-design sessions, and building project websites.

For job description and application process, please see this job posting: Inclusive Developer (AI & Machine Learning).

Announcing Project We Count

September 4 2019, OCAD University, Toronto - The IDRC is pleased to share that the Government of Canada, through the Accessible Technology Program, has announced funding for Project We Count.

Project We Count will address barriers to participation and employment for persons with disabilities in the rapidly growing data economy. At the same time, the project will tackle bias and exclusion of persons with disabilities in data systems and ensure that these systems (including artificial intelligence, smart technologies, data-driven decision making and data analytics) recognize, understand and serve people with disabilities by creating innovative machine learning strategies and addressing data gaps. Project We Count will increase knowledge, establish skills, develop inclusive data tools and create a forum whereby the Canadian disability community can help shape the rapidly evolving data economy in more inclusive directions.

Featured Projects

Center on Inclusive Software for Learning (CISL)

This project brings inclusive open education tools and knowledge from the FLOE Project to the newly-announced Center on Inclusive Software for Learning (CISL). Led by CAST, CISL will support the development of an open-source software suite, industry guidelines and supporting research to ensure K-12 students get engaging personalized learning through Open Education Resources. Funded by the the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs.

Platform Co-op

In collaboration with the Platform Co-op movement (https://platform.coop/), the goal of the project is to realize the full aspirations of Platform for Economic Inclusion. Together with Trebor Scholtz, the Platform Co-op Consortium and the New School, the IDRC will be developing a Platform Co-op Development Kit with the support of several foundations. The first implementation will be focused on care: childcare, attendant care and eldercare. “The work that makes all other work possible."

Coding to Learn and Create

The IDRC and Bridges Canada will collaborate on the Coding to Learn and Create project, that will develop new inclusive educational coding tools that will support the participation of students with complex learning needs, and will share critically-needed teaching resources and strategies to help educators teach more inclusively.

Visit the Coding to Learn and Create website (https://www.codelearncreate.org/) to learn more and get involved.

FLOE

FLOE provides the resources needed to enable inclusive access to personally relevant, engaging learning opportunities for the full diversity of learners and content producers. Through the Open Education Resources community, FLOE makes tools available that transform, augment, and personalize the learning experience.

Automated Personalization Computer Project (APCP) and Morphic

APCP (funded by Technology Innovation Program of the Rehabilitation Services Administration, U.S. Deptartment of Education) - In collaboration with the American Job Centers, community colleges, and high schools, the APCP project will help take the auto-personalization function of the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) from the proof-of-concept stage through to a high-quality, broadly-used open source implementation. Led by the TRACE Center at the University of Maryland, the IDRC is contributing to the project’s overall software architecture, security and web personalization infrastructure, and individualized metrics-gathering tools.

Morphic makes it easy to discover and adjust settings and features that can make the computer easier to use. By saving your settings in a secure and private cloud vault, Morphic can instantly apply them when you log in to any Morphic-enabled computer. For more information see the Morphic website (https://morphic.world/).

Cloud4all

Cloud4all is an European Commission FP7 grant that will develop key parts of the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII), building the knowledge base and algorithms needed and evaluating the ability of the concept to work across platforms, technologies and applications.

Inclusive Cities

Inclusive Cities - the IDRC is working with the Sidewalk Toronto team to help create accessibility and inclusion principles. Sidewalk Toronto is a joint effort between Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs and Waterfront Toronto to use smart technology and new construction techniques to develop a piece of land on Toronto’s eastern waterfront.